'Legends of Tomorrow' Recap: Rip Hunter's Team Suffers Their First Casualty
Warning: This recap for the “Pilot, Part 2” episode of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow contains spoilers.
Well, that didn’t take long, did it? Technically, it’s still the pilot and Legends of Tomorrow has already killed off a main member of the cast. It’s an interesting move since most of the Legends were paired off to begin with; considering that the Firestorm duo suffered a fatality before they even became a part of the show, will we be losing Captain Cold or Heat Wave before too long?
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The Plot
The Legends go undercover to catch Vandal Savage selling a nuclear weapon. Their cover is quickly blown and Firestorm is forced to contain a nuclear blast to save Norway. In the melee, Atom drops a piece of his suit which Savage’s scientists attempt to reverse engineer. Stein, Jax, and Canary visit Dr. Stein circa 1975 for a device to track the missing piece. The younger Stein almost figures out who they are, jeopardizing the elder Stein’s future, but Hunter redirects him so he meets his future wife. Meanwhile, Captain Cold, Heat Wave, and Atom attempt to steal the Amon Knife, which turns out to be owned by Savage. The knife will kill Savage permanently, but they discover too late that it must be wielded by Hawkgirl. Savage kills Hawkman with it and critically wounds Hawkgirl.
Another Hawk Bites the Dust
It was a quick exit and, judging by the synopses of the next couple of episodes, they’re not going out of their way to save him or retrieve a reincarnation of him from a different time. Of course, he wasn’t in the original promos for the show. Was he a late addition? A failed experiment? Is he coming back? The producers have intimated that someday the show could continue with a completely different cast, so maybe this is the warning that anybody could die at any time. How do you feel about a superpowered Game of Thrones?
The Clothes
Obviously, the big winner this episode is the “fabrication room” (aka, costume designer Vicky Mulholland). The bellbottoms, the lapels, Sara’s go-go boots, and the fur! A lot is made of how much the effects for this show must cost, but imagine if you had to costume ten main cast members — plus who knows how many extras — in different period clothes every week. Every thrift store in Southern California must look like the day after Black Friday when Legends comes through.
Related: ‘Arrow's’ Stephen Amell to Play Older, 1-Armed Oliver Queen on ‘DC’s Legends’
The First Bromance of the Season
“Meeting Clarissa was one of the great moments of my life… and meeting you was another.” It’s nice that Stein and Jax are bonding; they could have kept up the bickering brother bit for years. The more interesting thing won’t be the original pairings — Stein and Jax, Cold and Heat, Hawk and Hawk — it’ll be what happens when Leonard and Ray become chummy, leaving Mick to stew in jealousy. It’ll be when Kendra and Sara get together just as Carter returns. There are endless variations of friendliness and enmity available with that many characters.
Legendary Thoughts
* $100 million for a nuclear bomb in 1975? That seems like a lot. Is that a lot? Maybe the writers were worried about falling into the Austin Powers “One Million Dollars” trap.
* Burn of the Night: Dr. Stein telling Ray, “I was researching alpha particles when you were eating crayons.”
* Of course Damien Darhk would be there. We also know we’re going to see Ra’s al Ghul and a future, one-armed version of Oliver Queen. The real question is: Who do we fantasy cast for a teen Malcolm Merlyn?
* By the time this recap goes up, slash fic of both Martin Steins and Sara Lance will be burning a hole through Tumblr, guaranteed.
Legends of Tomorrow airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
